Method of tissue characterization by ultrasound
First Claim
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1. A method for classifying tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising the steps of:
- transmitting pulses of ultrasound energy into said body;
receiving pulses of returned ultrasound energy for said region of interest in said body;
digitizing said pulses of returned energy;
demodulating said pulses of returned energy by full-wave rectification to obtain the amplitude modulation in said digitized pulses of returned energy;
computing the power spectrum by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on said rectified digitized pulses of returned energy;
determining the Fourier energy in each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands of the power spectrum of said digitized pulses;
selectively comparing the Fourier energies in said selected Fourier frequency bands to obtain at least one energy comparison; and
correlating said at least one energy comparison to at least one tissue classification.
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Abstract
An ultrasound method and apparatus for classification of tissue in a region of interest in a body. The raw ultrasound return data is digitized and processed without the need for human visual analysis of pixel-scale video images. Tissue classification is done by correlation of the relative amount of energy in selected frequency bands of the power spectrum of the returned demodulated ultrasound data to that of known tissue samples.
126 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method for classifying tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising the steps of:
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transmitting pulses of ultrasound energy into said body; receiving pulses of returned ultrasound energy for said region of interest in said body; digitizing said pulses of returned energy; demodulating said pulses of returned energy by full-wave rectification to obtain the amplitude modulation in said digitized pulses of returned energy; computing the power spectrum by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on said rectified digitized pulses of returned energy; determining the Fourier energy in each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands of the power spectrum of said digitized pulses; selectively comparing the Fourier energies in said selected Fourier frequency bands to obtain at least one energy comparison; and correlating said at least one energy comparison to at least one tissue classification. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. Apparatus for classifying tissue in a region of interest comprising:
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means for generating ultrasound pulses; transducer means for applying said ultrasound pulses to said region of interest and receiving returned ultrasound pulses from said body; means for digitizing said returned ultrasound pulses; means for demodulating said returned ultrasound pulses by full-wave rectification to obtain the amplitude modulation in said digitized returned ultrasound pulses; computing means for computing the power spectrum by Fast Fourier Transform on said rectified digitized pulses; means adapted to determine the Fourier energy in each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands in the power spectrum of said digitized returned ultrasound pulses; means for selectively comparing Fourier energies for said selected Fourier frequency bands of said power spectrum and obtaining at least one energy comparison; and correlating means for correlating said at least one energy comparison to at least one tissue classification. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for classifying tissue in a region of interest in a body comprising the steps of:
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transmitting pulses of ultrasound energy into said body; receiving pulses of returned ultrasound energy for said region of interest in said body; digitizing said pulses of returned energy; demodulating said pulses of returned energy to obtain the amplitude modulation in said digitized pulses of returned energy; computing the power spectrum by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on said demodulated digitized pulses of returned energy; determining the Fourier energy in each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands of the power spectrum of said digitized pulses; selectively comparing the Fourier energies for said selected Fourier frequency bands to obtain at least one energy comparison; and correlating said at least one energy comparison to at least one tissue classification.
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14. Apparatus for classifying tissue in a region of interest comprising:
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means for generating ultrasound pulses; transducer means for applying said ultrasound pulses to said region of interest and receiving returned ultrasound pulses from said body; means for digitizing said returned ultrasound pulses; means for demodulating said returned ultrasound pulses to obtain the amplitude modulation in said digitized returned ultrasound pulses; computing means for computing the power spectrum by Fast Fourier Transform on said modulated digitized pulses; means adapted to determine the Fourier energy in each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands in the power spectrum of said digitized returned ultrasound pulses; means for selectively comparing Fourier energies for each of a plurality of selected Fourier frequency bands of said power spectrum and obtaining at least one energy comparison; and correlating means for correlating said at least one energy comparison to at least one tissue classification.
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Specification